Here is your chance to become a star and tell the story of your journey! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that The Sims™ 3 Showtime Expansion pack*** for PC/Mac is in development and will launch worldwide in March 2012. The latest expansion pack from The Sims Studio allows players to live the rags to riches story with their Sims and share these experiences with their friends. Using new and innovative social features such as individual in-game news feeds and live updates, players are connected to each other like never before.

“The Sims 3 Showtime is a huge step forward for The Sims franchise,” explains Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio. “For the first time, we are introducing social features that allow you to send your Sims to a friend’s game, perform at their venue in front of their Sims where you both will earn rewards, and capture and share these in-game moments of your rise to fame.”

The Sims 3 Showtime allows players to connect and share with their friends and fellow fans of The Sims without ever leaving the game. Players will venture into a new world and live the dream as singers, acrobats, magicians and DJs. Using the all-new SimPort feature, players can send their Sim into a friend’s game to perform in their world, book gigs in their friends’ town, go on tour, and be reviewed. Along the way, players can earn rewards for achieving goals and accomplishing special challenges that can be tracked and shared via in-game social wall posts. Players have the opportunity to post their Sims’ successes, share gameplay techniques, create wishlists and send gifts, search for new friends and share memories through their in-game news feeds and as e-cards.

Players who enjoy building can customise their Sims’ stages using props and special effects to create unique venues such as a swanky concert hall, a massive stadium or an indie club. How the stage is built will directly influence a player’s Sim’s performance and career progression. For players who love a challenge, they can earn in-game rewards and accomplish goals such as performing a legendary show in a high-level venue. For players who enjoy experimenting, an endless amount of gameplay opportunities and choices within the game provide a vast array of situations for cause-and-effect play and hilarity to ensue.

The Sims 3 Showtime is currently available for pre-order****. Those who pre-order now will be automatically upgraded to a special Limited Edition version, which features the Ultimate Stage venue. Players can place this fully customisable venue in their world and will be able to use it as an additional stage for their Sims to perform on, complete with in-game props, backgrounds, lights and special effects. This bonus venue is available through pre-order and while supplies last.

Quote:

InfoLive the rags to riches story with your Sims while connected to your friends! Experience the rise to stardom as your Sim performs on stage from one venue to the next. And for the first time, The Sims 3 Showtime introduces social features, including Passport, an all-new feature that lets you send your Sims to a friend’s game! There, your Sim can perform at your friend’s venue in front of your friend’s Sims! You will also be able to chat with friends and post messages and screenshots on your friends’ walls.

Features

* Your Sims can live the dream as Singers, Performers, Magicians, and DJs. Watch them rise to fame—or go down in flames as they perform for other Sims.

* Send your Sims to a friend’s game and have your friend’s Sim come to your game with the new Simport feature!

* Create your own venue! Build a swanky concert hall, a massive stadium, or an indie club. How the stage is built will influence your Sims’ performance and career progression.

* Get a bonus venue and stage for your Sims to perform in the Limited Edition!

* Or you could send your Sims to explore the new world called Starlight Shores!

Factsheet

Spoiler:

SummaryShare the Story of Your Sims’ Rise to Fame! - Here is your chance to become a star and tell the story of your journey! Live out the rags to riches story with your Sims while being connected to your friends. Using new and innovative social features such as individual in-game news feeds and live updates, players are connected to each other like never before.

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Sims 3 Showtime: Limited Edition Bonus Content

Those who pre-order now will be automatically upgraded to a special Limited Edition version, which features the Ultimate Stage venue. Players can place this fully customisable venue in their world and will be able to use it as an additional stage for their Sims to perform on, complete with in-game props, backgrounds, lights and special effects. This bonus venue is available through pre-order and while supplies last.

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Sims 3 Showtime: Katy Perry Collector’s Edition

Those who pre-order the Katy Perry Collector’s Edition will be automatically receive the special Limited Edition content, which features the Ultimate Stage venue, plus the exclusive Katy Perry Bonus Content. The Katy Perry Content includes an Ultimate Stage bonus venue, iconic Katy Perry themed items, and an exclusive poster. This iconic content includes fashions, a guitar, a hairstyle and various Katy Perry themed stage props.For more information, see here.

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New Social Features – Optional You are free to opt in and out of the following at any time. Note that there are achievements to be earned and unlocked when using these features.

The Sims 3 Showtime allows you to share with your friends and fellow fans of The Sims without ever leaving the game. Venture into a new world and live the dream as singers, acrobats, magicians and DJs. Using the all-new SimPort feature, send your Sim into a friend’s game to perform in their world, book gigs in your friends’ town, go on tour and be reviewed.

Along the way, earn rewards for achieving goals and accomplishing special challenges that can be tracked and shared via in-game social wall posts. Post your Sims’ successes, share gameplay techniques, create wishlists and send gifts, search for new friends and share memories through in-game news feeds and as e-cards.

For the first time, we are introducing social features that allow you to send your Sims to a friend’s game, perform at their venue in front of their Sims where you both will earn rewards, and capture and share these in-game moments of your rise to fame.

New Achievement System: Earn rewards for achieving goals and accomplishing special challenges that can be tracked and shared via in-game social wall posts. New achievements will be introduced on a regular basis. We’re also adding a new achievement system where players can take on special challenges and as they accomplish each achievement, they will be awarded badges that will be shown off on their new player profile page.

Can you get your Sims to smooch 5 times by Valentine’s Day? Can you get your Sim to sell 50 albums, in the first week of Showtime? Players will have hundreds of achievements to accomplish from day one, but stay tuned as new achievements will be presented to The Sims 3 community even after Showtime is released.

Book or Host Gigs: Using the innovative SimPort feature, send your Sims to a friend’s game or book friend’s Sims for a gig in their game

In Game Messaging - One of the new features in The Sims 3 Showtime is the capability of in-game messaging, so that you can communicate with your Simmer friends while you’re playing. If you prefer not to have this connected experience, then it’s easy enough to turn off this messaging.

Simport - SimPort is another major new connected feature introduced in Showtime. This allows players the ability to send their star Sim performers on tour to perform special shows in their friends’ towns. You can also invite your friends to send their Sims to perform for you. You can customize the stage in your venue with special themed backgrounds, props, lights and special effects before your friend’s Sim arrives to make sure their performance is a hit with the other Sims who live in your town.

When you send your Sims to a friend’s game, you will not see them perform live. Instead, you will receive notifications & photos of the tour.

During the performance you can cheer (or jeer) your friend’s Sim while they perform and even throw stuff on stage—from flowers to rotten lettuce! The last thing you throw will go home with them and end up in their inventory!

SimPort is a complimentary experience that in no way diminishes the stories you can tell about your Sims rise to fame, should you choose not to participate. There are special rewards, however, for those who send their Sims on tour through SimPort, such as unlocking new stage props, backgrounds and costumes to make even more unique stories possible for your Sims. It is Showtime after all!

Also, these features are an enhancement and expansion upon many of the online features that you’re likely already using in your The Sims 3 game, such as The Store, Memories, and the Community MyPage. Great care was taken to make sure that the systems are completely secure and adhere to strict privacy and security guidelines. There is no risk that your game will be affected by untested user created content or compromised data that could contain bugs or viruses. Sims who visit your town via SimPort will default to the traits, clothes, and objects that you have locally in your game.

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New Town – Starlight ShoresThe new Expansion pack includes a brand new world called Starlight Shores, with new venues and new objects to hone Sims’ talent at and rise to success.

You’ll be able to tell all-new stories in the new town of Starlight Shores where your Sims will be able to interact with new neighbors and discover a world full of new houses, objects, venues and custom stages.

Starlight Shores is inspired bt Southern California

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New Build/Buy Mode Objects & OptionsPlayers who enjoy building can customise their Sims’ stages using props and special effects to create unique venues such as a swanky concert hall, a massive stadium or an indie club.

How the stage is built will directly influence a player’s Sim’s performance and career progression. For players who love a challenge, they can earn in-game rewards and accomplish goals such as performing a legendary show in a high-level venue.

For players who enjoy experimenting, an endless amount of gameplay opportunities and choices within the game provide a vast array of situations for cause-and-effect play and hilarity to ensue.

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New Buy Objects♦ Pool Tables

♦ Karaoke Machine

♦ DJ Booths/Turntables

♦ New Guitar

♦ Batons

♦ Microphones

♦ Spotlights

♦ Speaker Systems

♦ Pull up Bar

♦ JukeBox

♦ Props

♦ New Decor

♦ New Lighting fixtures

♦ Photo Booth

♦ Mechanical Bull

♦ Table Top Arcade Machine

♦ Golf Driving Range

♦ Portable MP3 Player

♦ Electro-dance sphere

♦ Skeeball

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New CAS Items♦ New Hairstyles for men & women

♦ New Clothing

♦ New Career Clothing

All careers – acrobat, magician and singer –will unlock special objects and outfits directly relating to that career. All outfits can be customised in Create a Sim to match the look of the venue and stage for your Sim’s performance.

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New SimologyCreate New Sims: New traits and Lifetime Wishes give players more tools to tell their stories the way they want to.

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Skills/Skill Objects♦ DJ Booth (Skill Object) – The DJ Booth allows your Sims to moonlight as a DJ while your Sim is on their fantastic climb to stardom.

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New CareersVisit venues, book new gigs and build custom stages to watch how your Sim measures up against the competition. Will they succeed or will they fail? The Sims 3 Showtime allows you to live out your dream of becoming a star and share the story of your rise to fame.

Rise to Stardom: Venture into a new world and live the dream as a singer, acrobat, magician and DJs. Watch your Sims rise to fame—or go down in flames as they perform for other Sims.

Book or Host Gigs: Using the innovative SimPort feature, send your Sims to a friend’s game or book friend’s Sims for a gig in their game.

Sims will be able to perform for neighborhood Sims as they raise their skill.

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Confirmed Careers♦ Magician – As a magician, your Sim begins their career on the streets performing magic tricks for tips. They’ll visit new venues and meet with the owners to book larger gigs and gain experience. As a magician, your Sim begins their career on the streets performing magic tricks for tips. They’ll visit new venues and meet with the owners to book larger gigs and gain experience.

Magicians have unique social interactions that give them the ability to perform small-scale tricks on other Sims such as pulling a coin from an ear and making butterflies and doves magically appear.

As magicians level up, they acquire new objects that can be used on-stage. For some magical fun, your Sims can use the Box of Mystery to perform the “swords of destiny” by carefully placing knives through the box without stabbing the Sim inside. Beware the Box of Danger! If a Sim fails at correctly executing their tricks with this object, death may come calling.

Audience members are also much more interactive than ever before. They can be called up to participate with a magic illusion. They can make requests and they’ll be thrilled if the performer does the requests. They may react to a bad performance by throwing things at the stage. So get to practicing!

♦ Acrobat – By choosing a career as an acrobat, you can develop unique skills. Your Sim will begin his career in Acrobat as street mime and earn tips through small towers. As you progress, new items, locations and costumes will be released to help him make a real career as an artist!

When your Sims make a name for themselves, your Sims can showcase their talents in venues and perform new tricks such as flips or balance on a ball.

Finally, when it became a real star, your Sim will have the opportunity to perform in huge arenas where they can demonstrate with ease all his skills as an acrobat on a stage completely customized to his needs!

♦ Singer - Singers are unique in the game as they can accept paying jobs such as performing singing telegrams to gain experience.

Singing telegrams are also a social feature, and the types of jobs your Sims will receive will directly correlate to the happenings around town. If a Sim in town has just lost their job, cheer them up. If it’s a Sim’s birthday, sing them a song.

Like the other careers, singers can also take their talents to the public performing for tips in parks and local hang-outs. As singers progress, stage props, costumes and new songs will be unlocked to help them look the part and sing a variety of tunes. Singers will want to make it to the top to star in their very own big venue concert.

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New Death by MagicFor some magical fun, your Sims can use the Box of Mystery to perform the “swords of destiny” by carefully placing knives through the box without stabbing the Sim inside. Beware the Box of Danger! If a Sim fails at correctly executing their tricks with this object, death may come calling.

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SimFestAlso, all careers are able to participate in SimFest – a giant talent show for acrobats, magicians and singers to compete against one another in town. For Sims who particularly love a challenge, a new dual interaction is available in-game for Sims to compete against one another outside of SimFest.

1. Tell us a bit about The Sims 3 Showtime and what features you are most excited about.

We’re very excited about the big world of entertainment that The Sims 3 Showtime brings to The Sims 3. The new town of Starlight Shores is packed with a wide variety of venues where your Sims can see concerts, magic shows and other performances. Or they can just hang out with their friends, buy a round of beverages, play pool, sing karaoke, dance around the jukebox, play games, and even take a wild ride on a mechanical bull! There’s a ton of stuff to do, and that’s not even counting the new active performance careers—singer, magician and performer–or the chance to moonlight as a DJ, complete with your own DJ booth.

These new active careers tell the story of your Sims’ rise to fame, as you successfully navigate through levels in each career. We have to admit that some of the funniest moments happen as you try to progress, and sometimes fail at your acts and tricks. The audience will react to how well or poorly you perform, which is also another great achievement with this pack that fans have been asking for: crowds and audience participation.

You are also going to receive cool rewards and visual pay-offs for progressing and performing, from powerful post-show buffs that allow your Sim to increase their relationships after the show to unlocking incredible new costumes as your Sim climbs the ladder of success.

As you might have also heard, those who purchase The Sims 3 Showtime will have access to an exclusive connected feature called SimPort. If players choose to log-in, they will be able to send their singer, magician and acrobat Sims on tour to their friends’ worlds, and also host their friends’ Sims for performances in their own game.

2. How does this expansion pack differ from The Sims 3 Late Night?

While The Sims 3 Late Night created an exciting world of night-clubbing and celebrities, The Sims 3 Showtime is all about performance and entertainment: from street performing to playing live on club stages, to wowing sold-out crowds in huge arenas, Showtime catapults you and your Sims into a world of entertainment where dreams of superstardom can be realized. Whether your Sim is a singer, magician, acrobat or DJ, you – as the player – get to orchestrate the entire performance, from setting up the stage to choosing the outfits. Then while your Sim is on stage, you choose how the Sim interacts with the audience, from telling jokes to doing shout-outs or even insulting the crowd. Choose the song arrangements for your singer Sim and select any combination of tricks and stunts for your acrobat or magician Sims. You can even invite Sims from the audience to come on stage and assist with an illusion!

And the new active careers are just a part of the new content! There is plenty to enjoy in Starlight Shores even if you don’t pursue the performance careers. There are hundreds of new objects that you can use to customize your home or have fun playing with, including an electro-dance sphere, skeeball game, photo booth, golf driving range, jukebox, portable MP3 player, and more.

3. Can you tell us anything about returning items?

We love that so many fans have spotted the pool table already! You may also see some guest appearances by such fan favorites as the karaoke machine and mechanical bull.

4. How do you live the rags to riches story and can you elaborate more about performing as singers, acrobats, magicians and DJs?

The Sims 3 Showtime’s new world, Starlight Shores, has a look and vibe that was inspired by Southern California locations such as Venice Beach and Hollywood Boulevard. People visit these locations from all over the world to pursue their dreams of making it big in show business, so it’s a great setting to be an aspiring entertainer, as well as being just a cool place to live and have fun. When Sims start out, they have to find odd jobs to support themselves and are only able to perform on the streets, in local talent shows and in competitions. As they get better and more experienced, new opportunities arise along with it and they’ll be able to access new outfits, additional songs and tricks and everything they need to create a spectacular stage show. By the time your Sims reach the highest levels of their careers and get to perform in front of sold-out crowds, it’s a thrilling and satisfying payoff for you and your Sims.

5. What can you tell us about crowds in The Sims 3 Showtime?

For the first time in The Sims 3, you control your Sim’s performance on customized stages in front of crowds. When your Sims reach superstar status, you’ll see them perform in front of the largest audiences ever seen in the The Sims 3! We worked really hard to be able to populate venues with other Sims and to give you a true sold-out feel for your performances as you become a superstar.Audience members are also much more interactive than ever before. They can be called up to participate with a magic illusion. They can make requests and they’ll be thrilled if the performer does the requests. They may react to a bad performance by throwing things at the stage. So get to practicing!

6. Can you tell us what the new creature will be?

As much as we’d like to, we’re going to keep it a secret…for now.

7. We’ve heard that there are other online features coming, can you give an overview on how the online aspects work including the new achievements, the in-game player wall and player updates?

The goal of our new online features, which will be available for all The Sims 3 players when The Sims 3 Showtime launches in March, is to allow you to connect with your The Sims 3 friends -and us – in fun and rewarding ways.

This is entirely optional and is only available should you decide to log-in.

On a regular basis, we’ll be rolling out new achievements and news that you’ll be notified of immediately through these updates. The purpose of the new achievement system is to provide and recognize special achievements that the player accomplishes within The Sims 3 PC Base Game and Expansion Packs. Players who complete challenges will be awarded new badges for their My Pages.

There will be several types of challenges:• Sim Challenges, which must be completed by a single Sim

• Household Challenges, which must be completed by anyone in a household

• Player Challenges, where players complete an even many times over the course of the long-term game cycle

• Real-time Challenges, where players complete one event, or a series of events, between a real-world start date and end date.

Also for the first time, you can post messages to your friends while in-game, get player updates from The Sims 3 community. You will also be able to make friends with other The Sims 3 Showtime players and see their achievements in-game. The great thing about the new connected features is that they will be familiar to anyone who has created an account on the existing http://www.TheSims3.com web site.

8. How does the SimPort feature in The Sims 3 Showtime actually work? What is the benefit of sharing my Sims with other players? What if I prefer to play on my own?

SimPort is the new and completely optional feature in The Sims 3 Showtime that allows friends to share their Sims by sending them into each other’s worlds by going on tour. SimPort is brought to you through a fun new menu that looks like a travel journal, allowing you to send your star Sim performers on tour to the venues and stages in your friend’s world to perform special shows. You can also invite a friend to send their Sims in to perform for you. You can customize the stage in your venue with special themed backgrounds, props, lights and special effects before your friend’s Sim arrives to make sure their performance is a hit with your crowd of Sims.

SimPort is a complementary experience that adds value to an already rich offline game. There are special rewards for those who send their Sims on tour through SimPort, such as earning extra Simoleans, gaining skill and experience at a faster rate, getting unique moodlets, and unlocking new stage props, backgrounds and costumes to make even more unique stories possible for your Sims.Another benefit of SimPort is that you can use it to progress your game even when you’re not playing! Send your Sim off to perform in a friend’s world just before you log off your game; the next time you log on, your Sim will be back with all the goodies earned while “on the road”! Or, if you have multiple Sims in your household, sending one Sim on tour gives you some time (typically, it’s for 12 Sim hours, or 12 minutes in real time) to focus on your other Sim(s).

9. Do the social features relate to The Sims Social in any way?

No, the two are separate social experiences. The Sims Social is a great way to experience The Sims series with your friends on Facebook. The social features we are introducing with The Sims 3 Showtime are focused on connecting The Sims 3 players and community members together in more accessible ways, extending the great community that is already very active on http://www.TheSims3.com web site into the game. As mentioned earlier, the great thing about the new connected features is that they will be familiar to anyone who has created an account on the existing http://www.TheSims3.com community web site.

10. How are the social features tied into Facebook and Twitter?

If you like, you can post memories and wall posts (for instance… images of your awesome stage performance) to Facebook and Twitter to share with your friends and followers outside of the game.

11. How are you planning to protect players from any potential viruses, identity theft, or other security issues with the introduction of social features?

The in-game connected features in The Sims 3 Showtime use the very same system and technology that allows community members to post, download and share content on The Sims 3 community web site, including The Sims 3 Store and The Sims 3 Exchange. You can rest assured that we are using the same security measures that keep the Sims3.com safe and secure.

Screenshots!

Spoiler:

Limited Edition Bonus Stage & Venue

The Creature In Showtime!

isn't this the perfect time for EA to put back open restaruants in the game??

_________________I'm busy doin' nothin at all!

Last edited by SimsTias on Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:18 pm, edited 21 times in total.

This really looks and sounds awful! We have absolutely no interest in any of the Social Networking features at all, and you can be they will be integrated into the game whether you want them or not. We suspect that the Social features will get show-horned into your game via the patches whether you want them or not.

There is no clear indication of whether all the "Show" stuff is available to play in what will become known as Single Player mode.

For the many people who don't want the Social Networking side of the pack it will make it very expensive for what amounts to an addon for Late Night!

When you really break it down there is actually very little in this EP it is more like a large SP with the Social Networking forced into it...

Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:19 pm

Justin much?

come hither

Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:14 amPosts: 8889
Age: 19
Gender: Male

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

^It looks like there is more in this ep than generations had.

BUt yeah I'd rather not social network with friends on the sims... isn't the sims social for facebook good enough?

I know there are troubles of more than one kind, they come from ahead and they come from behind. But I've brought a big bat, I'm all ready, you see. Now my troubles are gunna have troubles with me. ~Dr. Suess~

Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:57 pm

Radiant

Simsational Poster

Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:19 pmPosts: 553Location: The Past
Age: 25

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

Hey look, an Expansion Pack of an Expansion Pack!

Unfortunately, they still couldn't get everything right (IMO) and now they're trying to force social networking on us.

Why couldn't they just release Seasons instead?

_________________

Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:54 pm

Conclue

Friendly Neighbour

Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 9:52 pmPosts: 30

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

I can't help but be super excited for this expansion pack; however it doesn't mean I'm happy about it all.

I have an idea for a family in mind that I started in Sims 1 in superstar of my favorite singer. I've waited to do it untill there was more EP content and preferablly seasons was when I was gonna recreate that family again. Showtime is absolutely the best EP for my family and storyline, LOL! I was dissapointed we didn't get singers in LN (or a pool table, or open stages for the bands, or DJ booths and careers, yeah basically 60% of this EP) because my storyline was of a superstar singer. Well, I figured I'd just go with the Base game and LN features had to recreate it. I'm really exicted of being able to actually see it happen rather than just have them "Perform Concert". So case in point, I'm a real sucker for the singer part of this EP, and the rest because I love that stuff plus the magic/acrobat stuff looks fun too).

Unfortunately I'm infuriated by the social crap. I don't have a facebook those options BETTER be optional, including simport. I can't see them FORCING it upon us like celebrites. I think celebrites was just an epic game coding failure. I kinda hope there will be options in showtime to fix it. Maybe you can finally have tools within city hall to "Remove celebrity status" or "resign from celebrity life". Just an easy option so we can keep a handle on who's a celeb, and whose not.

And I'm aggravated that once again a NEW EP idea is a conglomeration of things from pervious EP's, much of which should have been included in LN and a couple of new twists on old favorites.

I'm dissapointed that theres no comedy track, that's odd to me.

Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:26 pm

Justin much?

come hither

Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:14 amPosts: 8889
Age: 19
Gender: Male

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

so my guess is the new gameplay objects will be the magic tricks, microphone, dj booth, pull up bar, and the pool table... I might wait until next black friday and get this ep and the next one at half price like they offered this year.

After this pack is released and there still is no vegas objects, I feel that we will never get them in sims 3 (highly doubt a late night part 3 will be released).

_________________i'm a beastly sims player

Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:47 pm

Claire17

Roomie

Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2009 2:40 amPosts: 56
Age: 28
Gender: Female

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

Shouldn't this have been included in late night? I'm not sure I fancy paying full price for another entertainment EP!

Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:14 pm

Justin much?

come hither

Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:14 amPosts: 8889
Age: 19
Gender: Male

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

Claire17 wrote:

Shouldn't this have been included in late night? I'm not sure I fancy paying full price for another entertainment EP!

yeah its so weird, fame was released in LN, but then all the stuff famous people actually do is released in showtime O.o

I am a little impressed they have decided to revisit this idea and do fame to the full. I absolutely love the look of the stages, the giant screens are my favourite.

At this point we know so very little about this EP that its hard to judge it, when games are announced they hardly tell you anything (and rightfully so).

As far as the social networking, it doesn't sound in anyway like its forced upon the player. If the game is connecting to your facebook account then simply dont connect your game with your facebook account. But i am getting a vibe that it is connected the The Sims Website and you add friends from there and can interact with them in game through chat and wall posts etc. It pretty much seems that unless you go after these features it will be like they are not even there.

Then of course there is this feature of sending your sim to a friends game. I don't think that you actually get to go aswell. Seems to me like your friend who also has Showtime will have your sim arrive in their game and perform whilst they are currently missing from yours and then afterwards will return. My guess is that if they dont have an EP or CC that contains items your sim is wearing the game will react as it usually does and replace them with something they do have.

_________________Girl's Generation Make You Feel The Heat!

Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:43 am

Radiant

Simsational Poster

Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:19 pmPosts: 553Location: The Past
Age: 25

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

mitchmacca92 wrote:

At this point we know so very little about this EP that its hard to judge it, when games are announced they hardly tell you anything (and rightfully so).

I'm sure we know more than you think.

Remember Generations? The trailer gave almost everything away.

I'd have a hard time believing that there's a lot more to this EP than what has been shown. I'm pretty sure all of the items with new interactions/animations were shown in the trailer, because that's just the way things go.

I miss The Sims 2 days when not everything was shown in the trailer. But that was only possible because The Sims 2 Expansion Packs actually had content to them.

I'd have a hard time believing that there's a lot more to this EP than what has been shown. I'm pretty sure all of the items with new interactions/animations were shown in the trailer, because that's just the way things go.

I miss The Sims 2 days when not everything was shown in the trailer. But that was only possible because The Sims 2 Expansion Packs actually had content to them.

I second what you said about Generations..

For once I am really on the fence about this EP. Usually I'm able to call them out accurately before they're released. Like I knew that Pets was worth the money and that Generations was utter shit. With this one... I really don't know.

I guess that the redflags that stand out to me are the social networking features; I almost never socially network with TS3 because it is my personal "r and r" time. And the fact that this EP looks like it should've been include in LN. Back when Generations was released we all said it should've been added to the base game and I get that same feeling with this EP.

Honestly, I think that this remake-->new-idea-EP pattern has run its course. If they weren't going to give us Seasons, then they should have given us a University remake; a lot of users want those EPs remade.

The longer they hold off seasons, the more I start to think that they are saving it for last.

_________________

Abraxis wrote:

I hope you all get AIDS and die.

Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:10 am

Radiant

Simsational Poster

Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:19 pmPosts: 553Location: The Past
Age: 25

Re: The Sims 3: Showtime Announced!!!

Scryer wrote:

Honestly, I think that this remake-->new-idea-EP pattern has run its course.

Apparently EA themselves thinks so because this Expansion Pack most certainly isn't a "new idea". It's a reuse of a theme that has already been covered not only in the past The Sims games, but in this very The Sims iteration with Late Night.

My gosh, if they're going to break the pattern, break it to release Seasons!

Showtime is ridiculous and there are so little positive reactions towards it. The reactions are even worse than Generations. Which is actually kind of sad, because I still think that this EP will surely at least top Generations. Not in being fresh, but in actually bringing anything of significance to the game that wasn't already there.

EA made such a great Pets Expansion Pack for The Sims 3. Looks like all of their resources went toward it. Hopefully this EP is making room for a fantastic Seasons Expansion Pack. We have been waiting long enough.

Hopefully this EP is making room for a fantastic Seasons Expansion Pack. We have been waiting long enough.

No shit.

_________________

I know there are troubles of more than one kind, they come from ahead and they come from behind. But I've brought a big bat, I'm all ready, you see. Now my troubles are gunna have troubles with me. ~Dr. Suess~

At this point we know so very little about this EP that its hard to judge it, when games are announced they hardly tell you anything (and rightfully so).

I'm sure we know more than you think.

Remember Generations? The trailer gave almost everything away.

I feel like Generations was an outlier, most of the stuff that was instantly evident upon installation was indeed showcased in the initial trailer and press release. That EP had much more going on underneath than really on the surface.